Jewelry that means something

Men want jewelry that holds some meaning, Ms. Giberson of the Accessories Council said. “They want their jewelry to be unique, to be part of their story telling.”

As an example, she pointed to Dune Jewelry, the Boston-based company that 10 years ago introduced a collection of transparent discs — as pendants, on bangles or mounted on rings — that hold sand. The company has sand and dirt from about 3,300 places around the world, including Yankee Stadium, resorts in Dubai and the Maldives, and golf courses in Ireland — a library that Ms. Giberson said it called its Sandbank. “Or people can send in their own sand that they scooped up on vacation,” she said. The resulting pieces are highly personal; Dune calls it experiential jewelry.

For her new men’s line, Ms. Sakai of Vita Fede is working with Helio Ascari, a Brazilian now working in Brooklyn, whose leather-wrapped bicycles have been carried by Polo Ralph Lauren and Bergdorf Goodman’s. Mr. Ascari will wrap her signature Titan men’s bracelet in black or brown leather, leaving the metal tips of the circlet visible. She notes that buyers will be able to customize their choices — the bracelet tips “might be silver on one side and onyx on the other,” and they will be shipped in a gift box that’s also customizable and can later be used “to hold cigars or pens.”

Ms. Giberson traced the start of such customization to about 10 years ago when, she said, “the ‘It’ Bag died.”

“Everyone” — men included — ”started creating their own look by stacking bracelets in different combinations,” she said. “Then there was the charms trend.”

For men as well as women, jewelry became a form of self-expression, and the kind of personal emblem that appealed strongly to millennials and the teenagers of Gen Z.

Technology has helped enable the growth of customization, Ms. Sakai said, “Just like you can order your own food from Fresh Direct, you can design your own bracelet.”